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I was interested to read that some people are having problems with the midi output of their MP7.
I am experiencing exactly that, drivers load okay but no output from the keys.
I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem and managed to fix it, as I am about to send my unit back to Thomann.
It was working fine but just stopped!

The keyboard loads the drivers fine and accepts incoming midi but nothing goes out.

Any ideas anyone, Ive tried all the usual suggestions, cables, driver etc.

This is such a shame as otherwise its a brilliant keyboard.

Have you tried to reinstall any firmware update?

yep David tried that....no difference

roobarb, see my post in your other thread.

Hi James,
Can a sound on the MP7 be updated, or replaced, either by Kawai, or by MP7 owners?

For example, one sound I really need is a good Harp.
Actually MP7 has a great harp! but the range it not correct, so I cannot use it for Harp repertoire. The range is up to D5 (one octave above middle C plus 1 note)
(see pic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies).
For example, I want to play the harp sound for a wedding ceremony, but I need the notes above D5 to sound nice. I cannot use the "frequency shifted" substitute sounds in an intimate setting like a church. Maybe in a rock band it will do.
This is a major irritation to me. I'll have to lug along a computer and midi cables to get the sounds I need. This will make my MP7 jealous and feel neglected

I would say a rule for acoustic instrument samples should be:
"the range of sampled notes needs to match the real acoustic instruments range.
Only outside the natural range is it okay to stretch the notes (or optionally be silent). Otherwise it is just a toy instrument."

It would be great if the MP7 could update sounds, or allow owners to do it.
One problem would be limited on-board memory but I would be happy to delete some sampled sound banks that I don't want.

Do you think this can be supported?

Thanks,
BP
p.s. love my mp7, but I want it to grow with me.

I would agree with this. There's generally too much stretching going on in DPs. Even with the MP7's pianos, the only one with 88-note sampling is the main Concert Grand and its derivatives. The 2nd grand seems to be sampled in 4-note stretch groups, and I think it's similar for other pianos. It's still a great instrument, but a little more memory wouldn't go amiss.

Hello BachPlus,

I'm glad to read that you are enjoying your MP7.

To answer your queries:



No, I'm afraid not.



How about an iPad?



I don't disagree with you, however this may not be possible given the finite restrictions on available sample memory. When developing a stage piano, I believe the engineers are right to prioritise piano, electric piano, organ, and synth sounds over other less common voices such as the harp.

Kind regards,
James
x

The MP7 has something like four times the sample memory of the MP6.
Sure, more is always better, but it doesn't come cheap. At its current price, I believe the MP7 offers an incredible package for the money.

Cheers,
James
x

What speaker monitors work well for home use?
My headphones work great and the MP7 acoustic piano sounds are nice and clear.
But for some reason, the 5" monitors sound "dusty" or "dirty", for the piano sounds. BUT other non-piano sounds like electric pianos and organs are good and clear with the monitors.
Is the acoustic piano sound too complex for inexpensive monitors? I expect at least 90% as good a sound as headphones.
But i would says its 50% and not pleasant.
But for non-piano sounds, it is like 95% as good as headphones.

(I didn't say my monitor brand, since I don't want to imply they aren't good, as I am very inexperienced with audio)

But with so many MP7 users here, someone must have a suggestion for speaker monitors that work well for the acoustic piano samples at home.

Thanks,
BP

I'm using a pair of Yamaha HS80M monitors and they work quite weill with the MP7. There's now an updated version of these 8" monitors.

I've also had it hooked up to two Roland CM-30 speakers, and while they lack the fidelity of the Yamaha monitors, the sound is still pretty good. (I even had both the Yamahas and the Rolands hooked up together at one point - but that's overkill!)

On my MP7 I use Yamaha HS8 monitors which sound awesome. However I noticed, albeit being near field monitors, the HS8 require some headroom to express their full potential.
So I placed them in a equilateral stereo triangle with 2m side length, this setup seems to work best in my room setup. The monitors have at least 3m clearance to the walls in each direction.

Sound is astonishing with those monitors, a subwoofer is not required and all the Kawai Pianos develop a great amouont of detail and character. However those Yamahas show a stron directionality, so as long as you are listening alone and set them up properly you will love the sound. But other people in the room will have inferior sound, missing treble and stereo field. Keep that in mind, if you think about those speakers. They are great for the player but not optimal for audience.

Finally got my hands on an MP7. Great board!

One problem I'm having: When I select a high trigger point for organ (i.e. "off-fast"), if I switch to piano, I still get the behavior of the high trigger point (fast trigger at full velocity). Also, if I change the organ to high trigger and Store it, that state is not remembered, the organ is back to Normal trigger the next time I turn the keyboard on. Have I found a bug? Is there something wrong with this unit? (I tried a factory reset, no change.)

Woot!
Where (i.e. which store) did you find it, just out of interest?



This is not a bug.

'Touch Mode' is a [C]ommon parameter, which means all zones will share the same setting. It also means that the parameter is not stored to a SOUND memory.

In order to easily switch between sounds with different [C]ommon parameters, you'll need to store them as separate SETUPs. E.g. SETUP 1-1-A for piano (Touch Mode = Normal), SETUP 1-1-B for organ (Touch Mode = Fast2), etc.



In order to have parameters recall when the instrument is turned on, they need to be stored to the MP's PowerOn memory. This includes [C]ommon parameters, so you could theoretically set Fast/Fast2 to be selected each time the instrument is turned on. However, then you would need to manually set it back to Normal when wishing to play piano, unless of course you're using SETUPs.

I hope this answers your query.

Cheers,
James
x

The MP7 is on my short list(along with the ES7)-pending an opportunity to try out each model...but <Wow> the former certainly seems to have some sophisticated features. How many potential "Set Ups" can be stored, James?

256 Setups, plus you can edit any or all of the 256 Sounds.

It's an extremely fine package, and is about the best all-round stage/slab board available right now, IMO.

Aesthetics/build quality: beats the Yamaha CP4, Roland RD800 and Casio PX-5S in both materials and looks, IMO. It also avoids the Roland and Kurzweil tendency to dribble extra plastic and controls off the left hand side, making the boards overlong and unwieldy.

Ease of use: almost totally intuitive (I've used the manual maybe once!).

Features: effects (and lots of them), EQ, zones, patches, MIDI assignments all available from the front panel. Standard "kettle" AC plug, and lots of connections (including a socket for expression pedal) on the rear.

Action: one of the best, and despite being plastic I think it easily rivals the Yamaha GH3 wooden action.

Sounds: very subjective, but I think it includes very good pianos, very good EPs, good organs, strings and bass, plus a few other usable sounds with useful features such as portamento. The upright piano has a lot of character (rather like one of Nord's in that respect), and the 2nd grand, while tonally similar to the 1st (it's a Kawai!) provides a distinctive enough difference to make it useful in some contexts. I will reiterate here (sorry, James ) that the claim of 88-note HI-XL sampling only refers to the main grand piano. Nord wins here as you can download and install multiple fully sampled grand pianos up to the 500MB limit. The one thing I think future Kawai DPs could benefit from is the addition of a more mellow-voiced but full-bodied piano sampled from scratch (not simply a processed version of the main piano).

OS updates: swiftly produced as bugs are found, and very easy to perform. It should also be noted that Kawai has an excellent record in responding to bug reports, and is very willing to listen to genuine issues as they arise. At least here in America, the level of support is tremendous.

Music rest: yes, some of us still use them! Get a grip, Roland and Casio!

I'm extremely pleased I bought the MP7. I love Roland pianos and really appreciate the clarity of Yamaha, as well as the "aliveness" of Nord and the latest unstretched, unlooped Korg offerings. However, I can no longer justify keeping multiple DPs just to satisfy my mood of the day. The MP7 provides the most complete package at a sensible price that I can use in just about any situation.

voxpops, wow, thank you for the positive write-up!

I agree with your comments, however:



Perhaps this was true in the past, when memory was more limited. However, as I mentioned the other day, the MP7 has around 4x the sample memory of the MP6, allowing multiple different piano sounds as opposed to filtered variations based on the same sample set.

That's not to say that every sound utilises unique samples, but there's certainly a lot more data in there than a single 'main' piano.

Cheers,
James
x

I'm using Behringer Truth B3030A. All I can say: They sound very clear and authentic. And they are pretty unexpensive!
Very good value for the price.

James, by "main" I was referring to Concert Grand 1. I believe that the other (separate) AP samples are Concert Grand 2 and Upright Piano. Unless I'm very much mistaken, both the Mellow Grand samples are derivatives of either Concert Grand 1 or Concert Grand 2. When I suggested "the addition of a more mellow-voiced but full-bodied piano sampled from scratch", I had in mind the idea of a grand that had been voiced in a mellow way and then sampled to preserve its characteristics. Given the sometimes brittle nature of the current Kawai samples - that are then (presumably) processed to produce the mellow versions - you don't get quite the same personality shining through the derivatives.

Of course, I stand to be corrected if these mellow grands are in fact separate samples. It's common knowledge in the voxpops household that the old man is going deaf!

One happened to pop up on Craigslist 10 minutes from my girlfriend's place. So I took the opportunity to finally check one out. I ended up going home with it.

Some backstory: A few years ago, I checked out the MP10. It was, at the time, my favorite sounding DP. But the action was heavy/sluggish for my taste, and there was no way I was buying something that was 70+ pounds anyway. I also checked out the MP6, but didn't really get into the sound or the action on that one. But from that experience I knew I would like the sound of the MP7 (since it had at least MP10 calibre sound), and from what I had learned about it online (including that nice video from Kraft), I knew I would like the interface and features. I really had two questions: What was the action like? And could I possibly deal with a 46 lb board? I'll sidetrack here to mention that I generally consider 34 lbs about my limit, but every now and then I get a "special" gig where I'm willing to consider going a little heavier to get just what I want. So I wasn't looking at this as an everyday gigging board, but something for "special occasions" - still, it had to be reasonably manageable, and my max threshold for shleppage is still pretty low, so I didn't know if 46 would make the cut.

Well here's what I quickly discovered to answer my two questions:

One, the MP7 has one of the best actions I've ever played. I like it much more than the MP6 or the MP10, or most actions from other brands. As a bonus, while I'm not typically one to play organ from piano actions, this board is really well playable for organ too! The Fatar TP40 variants used in some Kurzweil and Nord models are also above average if you must play organ from a weighted board (i.e. Nord Stage 2, Kurz PC3K8), but they are not as nice as the MP7 for piano. (I don't dislike those TP40s as some other people do, but I do like the MP7 action better.)

Two, this is probably the lightest 46 lb board I can imagine. That might sound funny, but really, weight doesn't tell you the whole story. How the weight is distributed and where the carrying points are located and how they are designed makes a big difference. The bottom line is that the 46 lb MP7 felt NO heavier than the 38.5 lb Korg SV1-73, whether moving them by themselves or moving them in cases. In fact, I was so surprised at this that I actually weighed both keyboards to make sure those numbers were accurate! From memory, I think the MP7 is easier to move than a number of other 30-something pound boards, including the Roland VR-700/760, Nord Stage 2-76, Kurzweil PC2/PC3. Sometimes there's just no comfortable way to pick the darn things up!

So already knowing that I'd like the piano sound and the features/interface, it was a matter of playing the keys and lifting the board off its stand, and I was ready to buy. However, this doesn't stop me from wishing there was a 7x key version with ES100 calibre keys at about 30 lbs for my everyday gigs. ;-)


I didn't realize that also meant that changing that parameter would "stick" even if you changed the sound in the one and only zone you're playing, if you hadn't saved your edits. Thanks for the explanation. I understand, but it is a bit confusing since most of the edits you make to a sound--even ones on the same screen as Touch mode--are instantly forgotten if you change to a new sound without saving anything... but that one sticks.

I like the flexibility of actually being able to choose from two high trigger points, something no other "organ" board offers (AFAIK), a nice side benefit of having three sensors. A nice enhancement would be to also offer the option of different release points. When playing organ or clav, it can actually be advantageous (and in some cases more authentic) to have the note stop playing before it is at the highest point of its travel, that would be another way to take advantage of the middle sensor.